I sat at the window one night looking up at the moon. It was a bright light in a dark sky.
The round disc which seemed vast, white with dark shadows giving a human expression at times, made me want to write about it. So I ran downstairs and demand a pencil and paper from my parents who must have looked puzzled at their five year old running around the living room seeking these items. I then sat and wrote my first poem. It was called “The Moon”.
The first line was “The moon floats on a silver sheen”.
Once done I hurried up the stairs to my parents big bedroom and sat again at the window.
This time I read my poem out loud looking up to the object of my delight.
The little poem of about five lines is kept safe, a treasure of my childhood.
I mention this to give an example of the impression nature can make, and how inspiration can occur.
The topic was brought to mind via listening to ‘The Today’ programme on the radio, where a discussion was in progress regarding a new competition whose aim was to encourage children to express themselves in poetry.
The poems will be read and comment given by well known poets to encourage the creative juices in the next generation.
The poems can be turned into song lyrics, which many might consider, but there is a need to give voice to feelings of admiration and wonder, sadness or fear in most humans.
A few months ago, I sat on a train going home, and looking up at the sky there again the Moon took my interest. This time it seemed like a huge planet, half covered by a cloud.
Was it real? It looked like a scene from a film showing another world with this huge disc just out of reach.
The train moved faster and the image changed with the movement of the train and the clouds.
This I thought was the same object I had watched so long ago. The same moon that Shakespeare mentioned in the lines “What light through yonder window breaks”,
The same moon that inspired the words “One small step for man…”.
Everything begins with small steps, it is what happens next that matters, perhaps the small steps encouraging poetry in that competition will result in a major dramatic development in the future.
At least perhaps the connection between words, feelings and the world around may come to life.
